Special Libraries

The Colorado Talking Book Library (CTBL) provides free library services to Coloradans of all ages who are unable to read standard print materials because of physical, visual, or learning disabilities. CTBL provides recorded books and magazines, Braille materials, large print books, and a small collection of descriptive videos. CTBL serves more than 6,400 active individual patrons and 475 organizations.

As part of an ongoing effort by CTBL to evaluate its services, the Library Research Service (LRS) developed and administered a patron survey in the fall of 2014. The survey was designed to help CTBL identify possible strengths and weaknesses and to plan for future services. LRS has conducted 6 surveys over the last 10 years for CTBL. The survey was a combination of an outcome-based evaluation and a customer satisfaction questionnaire.

As in 2012, the 2014 survey was distributed to CTBL patrons in Braille and audio formats in addition to the traditional paper-based, large-print format. Patrons also had the option of completing the survey online. In a further effort to ensure the sample was representative of CTBL’s patrons, administrators again used a sample stratified by age group. This proved to be effective as the responses received by each age group fairly closely reflected the CTBL patron population.

Of the 1,733 patrons in the sample, 983 received the survey on paper. In addition, 388 received audio notification of the survey, either on audio cassette or through the digital playback format, and 37 received survey notification in Braille, asking them to complete the survey online or by phone. The remaining patrons in the sample received the survey electronically. Assistance filling out the survey was available at CTBL or by telephone for any patron who requested it.

Surveys were completed by 454 patrons, representing a response rate of 26%. This is a decrease of just 4% from the 2012 survey, which had a response rate of 27%.

The Colorado Talking Book Library (CTBL) provides free library services to Coloradans of all ages who are unable to read standard print materials because of physical, visual, or learning disabilities. CTBL provides recorded books and magazines, Braille materials, large print books, and a small collection of descriptive videos. CTBL serves more than 6,000 active individual patrons and 339 organizations.

As part of an ongoing effort by CTBL to evaluate its services, the Library Research Service developed and administered a patron survey in the fall of 2012. The survey was designed to help CTBL identify possible strengths and weaknesses and to plan for future services. Since 2004, LRS has commissioned a survey for CTBL 5 times (approximately every 18 months). The survey was a combination of an outcome-based evaluation and a customer satisfaction questionnaire (see Appendix A).

As in 2010, the 2012 survey was distributed to CTBL patrons in Braille and audio formats in addition to the traditional paper-based format. To ensure the sample was representative of CTBL’s patrons, administrators again used a sample stratified by age group. This proved to be effective as the responses received by each age group fairly closely reflected the CTBL patron population (see Chart 1).

Of the 2,054 patrons in the sample, 1,290 received the survey on paper. A total of 698 received audio notification of the survey, through the digital playback format, and 66 received survey notification in Braille, asking them to complete the survey online or by phone. Assistance filling out the survey was available at CTBL or by telephone for any patron who requested it.

Surveys were completed by 549 patrons, representing a response rate of 27 percent. This figure was down slightly from the 33 percent response rate of the 2010 survey, and consistent with the 2008 survey’s response rate of 28 percent.

The Colorado Talking Book Library (CTBL) provides free library services to Coloradans of all ages who are unable to read standard print materials due to physical, visual, or learning disabilities. CTBL provides recorded books and magazines, Braille materials, large print books, and a small collection of descriptive videos. CTBL serves around 7,000 active individual patrons and 339 organizations.
As part of an ongoing effort by CTBL to evaluate its services, the Library Research Service developed a patron survey in summer 2010 which was administered in October of the same year. The survey was designed to help CTBL identify possible strengths and weaknesses and to plan for future services. Since 2004, LRS has commissioned a survey for CTBL four times (approximately every 18 months). The survey was a combination of an outcome-based evaluation and a customer satisfaction questionnaire (see Appendix A).

As in 2008, the 2010 survey was distributed to CTBL patrons in Braille and audio formats in addition to the traditional paper-based format. In a further effort to ensure the sample was representative of CTBL’s patrons, administrators again used a sample stratified by age group. This proved to be effective as the responses received by each age group fairly closely reflected the CTBL patron population (see Chart 1).

Of the 2,460 patrons in the sample, 2,005 received the survey on paper. In addition, 381 received audio notification of the survey, either on audio cassette or through the digital playback format, and 74 received survey notification in Braille, asking them to complete the survey online or by phone. Assistance filling out the survey was available at CTBL or by telephone for any patron who requested it.

Surveys were completed by 805 patrons, representing a response rate of 33 percent, 5 percent more than the 2008 survey, which had a response rate of 28 percent.

This project was conceived by the Colorado Association of Libraries’ (CAL) Intellectual Freedom Committee (IFC) to shed light on intellectual freedom issues in Colorado libraries. Of particular interest to the IFC were ‘challenges to’ versus ‘concerns about’ materials and the Internet in libraries. There was anecdotal evidence that there were far more concerns being raised by patrons about materials and the Internet than there were formal challenges. That is, a significant number of patrons were expressing concerns about materials and the Internet at their libraries, but they were not proceeding with formal challenges. In examining the issue of challenges versus concerns, this study examines the findings by type of library, community, and library personnel. In addition, this study investigates libraries’ challenge policies and strategies, usage rates of CAL-IFC and American Library
Association (ALA) Intellectual Freedom resources, the perceived influence of intellectual freedom issues in libraries, and the opinions of library personnel about these issues. All data was gathered using an online questionnaire.